Editing Newt Gingrich (section)

=== Government shutdown ===
{{Main|1995–1996 United States federal government shutdowns}}
[[File:Budget negotiations with congressional leadership.jpg|thumb|Senator [[Bob Dole]], Vice President [[Al Gore]], President Clinton and Gingrich converge for budget negotiations in December 1995]]
Gingrich and the incoming Republican majority's promise to slow the rate of government spending conflicted with the president's agenda for [[Medicare (United States)|Medicare]], education, the [[Natural environment|environment]] and [[public health]], leading to two temporary shutdowns of the federal government totaling 28 days.<ref name=fram>{{cite news |title=Clinton vetoes borrowing bill—government shutdown nears as rhetoric continues to roil |first=Alan |last=Fram |url=https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/19951113/2152355/clinton-vetoes-borrowing-bill |agency=[[Associated Press]] |newspaper=[[The Seattle Times]] |date=November 13, 1995 |access-date=March 3, 2011 |archive-date=May 23, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110523001904/http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19951113&slug=2152355 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Clinton said Republican amendments would strip the [[United States Department of the Treasury|U.S. Treasury]] of its ability to dip into federal trust funds to avoid a borrowing crisis. Republican amendments would have limited appeals by death-row inmates, made it harder to issue health, safety and environmental regulations, and would have committed the president to a seven-year balanced budget. Clinton vetoed a second bill allowing the government to keep operating beyond the time when most spending authority expires.<ref name=fram />

A GOP amendment opposed by Clinton would not only have increased [[Medicare (United States)#Part B: Medical insurance|Medicare Part&nbsp;B]] premiums, but it would also cancel a scheduled reduction. The Republicans held out for an increase in Medicare Part&nbsp;B premiums in January 1996 to $53.50 a month. Clinton favored the then current law, which was to let the premium that seniors pay drop to $42.50.<ref name=fram/>

The government closed most non-essential offices during the shutdown, which was the longest in U.S. history at the time. The shutdown ended when Clinton agreed to submit a CBO-approved balanced budget plan.<ref>{{cite news |title=Record-breaking federal shutdown ends |url=http://www.cnn.com/US/9601/budget/01-06/pm/index.html |publisher=[[CNN]] |date=January 6, 1996 |access-date=March 3, 2011 |archive-date=January 20, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110120220139/http://www.cnn.com/US/9601/budget/01-06/pm/index.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

During the crisis, Gingrich's public image suffered from the perception that the Republicans' hardline budget stance was owed partly to an alleged snub of Gingrich by Clinton during a flight on Air Force One to and from [[Yitzhak Rabin]]'s funeral in Israel.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=DeLay |first1=Tom |author-link1=Tom DeLay |first2=Stephen |last2=Mansfield |title=No Retreat, No Surrender: One American's Fight |page=112}}</ref> That perception developed after the trip when Gingrich, while being questioned by [[Lars-Erik Nelson]] at a ''[[Christian Science Monitor]]'' breakfast, said that he was dissatisfied that Clinton had not invited him to discuss the budget during the flight.<ref name="columbia">{{cite web |url=http://www.college.columbia.edu/cct_archive/may01/may01_profile_nelson.html |title=''Lars-Erik Nelson '64: A Subversive Among Cynics'' |publisher=Columbia University |access-date=October 15, 2013 |archive-date=October 14, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131014173906/http://www.college.columbia.edu/cct_archive/may01/may01_profile_nelson.html |url-status=live }}</ref> He complained that he and Dole were instructed to use the plane's rear exit to deplane, saying the snub was "part of why you ended up with us sending down a tougher continuing resolution".<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.cnn.com/US/9511/debt_limit/11-16/budget_gingrich |title=White House: Gingrich comment "bizarre" |publisher=[[CNN]]|date=November 16, 1995 |access-date=May 12, 2011 |archive-date=April 15, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110415225750/http://www.cnn.com/US/9511/debt_limit/11-16/budget_gingrich/ |url-status=live }}</ref> In response to Gingrich's complaint that they were "forced to use the rear door," NBC news released their videotape footage showing both Gingrich and Dole disembarking at Tel Aviv just behind Clinton via the front stairway.<ref name=Seattle-Times-111695>{{cite news |title=Gingrich: Snub caused impasse – treatment on Air Force One blamed |url=https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/19951116/2152925/gingrich-snub-caused-impasse----treatment-on-air-force-one-blamed |newspaper=[[The Seattle Times]] |date=November 16, 1995 |access-date=January 5, 2013 |archive-date=November 25, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121125051641/http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19951116&slug=2152925 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Gingrich was widely lampooned for implying that the government shutdown was a result of his personal grievances, including a widely shared editorial cartoon depicting him as a baby throwing a [[tantrum]].<ref>{{Cite news |work=[[New York Daily News]] |url=http://www.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1637383!img/httpImage/crybaby-jpg.jpg |title=Daily News cartoon |access-date=September 25, 2018 |archive-date=September 26, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180926014326/http://www.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1637383!img/httpImage/crybaby-jpg.jpg |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Dunn |first1=Martin |title=Newt 'Cry Baby' Gingrich: my part in his downfall |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/jan/25/newt-cry-baby-gingrich |work=[[The Guardian]]|date=January 25, 2012 |access-date=December 28, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Purdum |first1=Todd S. |title=Gingrich Shut Down the Government in a Tantrum 23 Years Ago |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/12/newt-gingrichs-1995-shutdown-came-fit-pique/578923/ |publisher=[[The Atlantic]] |date=December 21, 2018 |access-date=December 28, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Murawinski |first1=Ed |title=I drew the 'Cry Baby' heard round the world. (No, it wasn't Trump.) |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/i-drew-the-cry-baby-heard-round-the-world-no-it-wasnt-trump/2019/01/11/71542fe6-14e8-11e9-b6ad-9cfd62dbb0a8_story.html |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=January 11, 2019 |access-date=December 28, 2021}}</ref>

Democratic leaders, including [[Chuck Schumer]], took the opportunity to attack Gingrich's motives for the budget standoff.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/congress/november96/newtb_11-20.html |title=The State of Newt |date=November 20, 1996 |publisher=[[PBS NewsHour]]|first=Kwame |last=Hollman |access-date=August 14, 2006 |archive-date=March 23, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070323164613/http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/congress/november96/newtb_11-20.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |title=Newt Gingrich's Implosion |first=Deroy |last=Murdock |url=http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/commentprint082800d.html |date=August 28, 2000|access-date=August 15, 2006 |magazine=[[National Review]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060616073923/http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/commentprint082800d.html |archive-date=June 16, 2006}}</ref> In 1998, Gingrich said that these comments were his "single most avoidable mistake" as Speaker.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gingrich |first1=Newt |title=Lessons Learned the Hard Way |date=May 1998 |publisher=HarperCollins |location=New York |isbn=978-0-06-019106-1 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/lessonslearnedha0000ging/page/42 42]–46 |url=https://archive.org/details/lessonslearnedha0000ging|url-access=registration }}</ref>

Discussing the impact of the government shutdown on the Republican Party, Gingrich later commented that, "Everybody in Washington thinks that was a big mistake. They're exactly wrong. There had been no reelected Republican majority since 1928. Part of the reason we got reelected&nbsp;... is our base thought we were serious. And they thought we were serious because when it came to a show-down, we didn't flinch."<ref>{{cite news|title=Starving ObamaCare |author=Klein, Philip |newspaper=The American Spectator |date=July–August 2010 |url=http://spectator.org/archives/2010/08/06/starving-obamacare/print |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101231085942/http://spectator.org/archives/2010/08/06/starving-obamacare/print |archive-date=December 31, 2010}}</ref> In a 2011 op-ed in ''The Washington Post'', Gingrich said that the government shutdown led to the balanced-budget deal in 1997 and the first four consecutive balanced budgets since the 1920s, as well as the first re-election of a Republican majority since 1928.<ref name="Gingrich WaPo">{{cite news |title=If it comes to a shutdown, the GOP should stick to its principles |first=Newt |last=Gingrich |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/25/AR2011022502924_2.html?sid=ST2011022503108 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=February 25, 2011 |access-date=February 28, 2011 |archive-date=June 29, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629020041/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/25/AR2011022502924_2.html?sid=ST2011022503108 |url-status=live }}</ref>